The Oglethorpe men's basketball team lost twice on Friday evening at Dorough Field House, losing the game to SAA rival Centre, 52-47, and losing sophomore starting guard Drew Patrick to a wrist injury.

Patrick went down with the injury with 9:04 remaining in the first half and his team down 10-5. For the remainder of the period, the Stormy Petrels could not get a shot to go down, as the Colonels went on a 19-2 run to take at 23-7 lead with 3:09 left in the half. However, Centre wasn't shooting the ball particularly well, either, and the Petrels whittled their halftime deficit to 23-14 after a 7-0 run.

The 14 points Oglethorpe scored in the first half is by far a season low, as is the 18 percent shooting performance in the half. Centre only shot 38 percent for the period, though, and the Petrels were still in it, down by only nine at the break.

In the second half, Centre put the Petrels behind the 8-ball, taking control right away. They immediately went on a 7-0 run to take their 16-point lead back, then expanded that to 19, their largest of the game, with back-to-back 3-pointers. The Colonels led 38-19 with 12:56 remaining in the game. The Petrels slowly whittled the lead down over the remainder of the game, but could not do it fast enough. They had the lead down to 14 points, 42-28, with 9:32 left, but found themselves still behind by 15 points, 49-34, with 4:35 remaining. The home side got the Centre lead down to 49-39 with 2:43 remaining, but could not hit the big shot that would have given them a chance at the end. The Petrels outscored the Colonels 33-29 in the second half, but fell 52-47.

Both teams shot better in the second period, the Petrels firing with much better efficiency. Oglethorpe shot 41 percent for the half, 36 percent from beyond the 3-point line and 83 percent from the free-throw stripe. However, Centre improved also, hitting 43 percent of their shots for the period, including 78 percent from the free-throw line.

For the game, Centre shot 41 percent to Oglethorpe's 30 percent, including 85 percent from the free-throw line to the Petrels' 67 percent. The Petrels did shoot 30 percent from long range to Centre's 27 percent. The Petrels held the Colonels to just five offensive rebounds, and Centre only outrebounded Oglethorpe 37-33. Additionally, the Petrels forced a normally sure-handed Centre team into 16 turnovers, while committing just nine themselves. The poor shooting was too much to overcome on this night, however.

Sophomore forward Victor Rohlfs scored 15 points on 5-of-10 shooting, including 4-of-8 from 3-point range. He added three steals, as well. Freshman guard Connor Smith played 33 minutes, largely filling in for the injured Patrick. He scored 10 points on 3-of-8 shooting and grabbed five rebounds.

The loss drops the No. 21 Petrels to 14-2 on the season, 4-1 in SAA play. With the loss, Centre moves into sole possession of first place in the league, while the Petrels drop into a second-place tie with Rhodes, who the Petrels defeated in double overtime on the road in early January. It'll be a quick turnaround for the squad, as they take on Sewanee Saturday night at 8 p.m. in Dorough Field House.